20th May 2000 Tongans v Garforth at home

It was with eager anticipation that ‘The Tongans’ approached their first home game of the season.

Everyone was at the ground particularly early, being either especially keen on making sure the boundary was marked out correctly or enjoying a swift half or two of the ‘amber nectar. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for the purpose of this report!

Noticeable by his absence was ‘Fiery Phil Taylor’ – the Tongan captain. His excuse being a commitment to accompanying his daughter on a school trip, although the general consensus was that he was still in mourning over the loss of his trusty blade last week when trying to use it like a snooker cue instead of a cricket bat. No doubt he’s trying to find a piece of wood big enough to have a bat crafted to his weight specifications (that’s weight of bat, not weight of person). We hear he’s put an order in for a Giant Redwood to be shipped over from North America especially for the job.

Phil’s Deputy Chris Horsley was therefore handed the captain’s armband for the day and strode out to the wicket for the toss. The opposing captain didn’t fall for the old "heads I win tails you lose" routine, but called correctly and put the Tongans in to bat.

The weather was overcast, the ball was new and the umpire uttered Chris’ most feared three words after he had selected middle stump as guard – "Left arm over". (Excuses, excuses, excuses).

The bowler found his line and length quickly and after a few overs of defensive batting managed to find the edge of Chris’ bat. The keeper taking the catch. The Tongans obviously need some batting practice on the ‘Tong Track’ to convince themselves that even though it looks hard and dry any part of the body above the kneecaps is save from harm. This became more apparent as the innings went on as batsmen after batsmen were bowled while they were on the back foot after making none or very few runs.

Only one giant of a man (or tall boy) was able to change the course of events – out strode Nick Sowerby. Standing at just a little under eight feet, Nick proceeded to get himself nicely in and scoring steadily with a series of perfectly timed cover drives. The Garforth bowlers seemed to be getting more frustrated as they consistently his Nick’s front pad during forward defensive strokes. Appeal after appeal was turned down, the umpire obviously realising that due to his height, Nick’s forward stride took him practically halfway down the wicket alleviating any possibility of an LBW decision.

Unfortunately Nick’ partners were unable to master the Garforthian bowling and failed repeatedly to provide the support Nick needed to build any kind of defendable score. It has to be said several men were slightly unlucky – Pat Sowerby hit one of the sweetest shots of the day which unfortunately went straight to the man at mid-off. Even though he probably didn’t know much about it the fielder still managed to hold on to the ball. Jason Mcleod put up some solid resistance but got himself run out. Although it has to be said he was lucky in the previous over not be run out when the umpire mysteriously over looked the fact that he was a good yard short of the crease when the bails were dislodged.

Young Edward Crooke provided good support for Nick and looks like a promising prospect. Nick moved onto 43 when the drinks break arrived, he approached the scorer’s hut to find out how many he was on only to be told to get back out there and keep concentrating. "Your about 32" someone told him. So it was with a little surprise that he was greeted with a hearty cheer after his next two 4’s. He held his bat high like the true professional he isn’t and took the applause well. He batted on to 60 before being caught at long-on and it was a only a matter of a few overs before the innings came to an end on 111 with young Edward still standing.

Commendation has to go to the Garforth bowler Wadeley who took 9 wickets during his spell for 47 runs.

The Garforth openers started well and quickly moved on to their 50 partnership without looking in much trouble apart from the odd edge to the 3rd man boundary. Chris Williams seemed to be struggling to find any rhythm and although Pat Sowerby was hitting a good line and length no breakthrough seemed imminent.

The first bowling change brought on Duncan Hawkins who immediately slowed down the run rate and found the edge of the bat a couple of times. It wasn’t long before the sweet sound of ball on wicket was heard followed by a cheer and hearty congratulations from his teammates for taking his first ever wicket for Tong.

Alan Williams took the ball from the ‘Car Park’ end and proceeded to bowl a beautiful spell of off spin landing the ball on the proverbial sixpence 9 times out of ten. A couple more wickets fell and the crowd of approximately 25.5 started to get a bit excited.

Sympathy has to go out to ‘big Mark Darton’ who came a cropper when colliding with Duncan Hawkins whilst chasing a ball. The bad news was Mark had to leave the field for a while to stem the bleeding from the side of his head. The good news was he had saved a boundary.

Unfortunately a couple of loose balls brought boundaries and the Tongan total within reach. Garforth’s 5th wicket fell with only 2 runs needed (3 wickets to Duncan and 2 to Alan) so the game was over within minutes. It was a case of Tong not getting enough runs - another 25 – 30, or early wickets, and it would have been a different story.

On behalf of the Tong A team the writer would like to express our condolences to the friends and family of Tommy Topham. We did not know him well but it was obvious from the small dealings we had with him before his retirement from the club he was very committed and dedicated.